Hi, everyone! My family and I attended the Alabama Medieval Fantasy Festival the Saturday before last. It is located in Greenville, AL, which is a little bit of a drive, but at least it isn't as far away as New Orleans.
The festival has music, falconry, jousting, and drama plays. We were able to see the falconry show and the jousting event.
The falconry show was interesting. They had several types of birds that they showed off including a buzzard, Russian owl, and a falcon. I think everyone's favorite was the owl. She was beautiful!
The 'king and queen' of the festival along with the royal court made their way through the festival. According to a friend of my sister's, the king and queen are the couple who hold the event. They purchased the land and have been building on it ever since.
Since the festival is 'fantasy' themed, any type of costume could be worn. My sister and I saw ladies in steampunk attire and a teenager dressed up as the character from Assassin's Creed. It was a bizarre mix of costumes.
I think the best costumes were the king and queen who dressed in period costume. The king wore 'King Henry VIII' style dress complete with stockings! It was impressive especially since he was a burly red haired/bearded man.
After viewing the vendors for a bit, we went back to check out the jousting event. I missed a bit of that part of the event as I was stuck waiting for food. By the time I got back to the jousting, there were a lot of people in front......being short, I wasn't able to see much of the jousting. You couldn't help hearing it though. One of knights hit the other so hard, he fell off his horse. I'm sure there was a sizeable dent in his armor.
On our way out of the festival, we stopped by a tea vendor's table. My mother and I ended up both buying some tea. I got a orange cinnamon spice blend and my mother bought a bag of dragon's blood tea, which is full of fruit and spices. The vendor was called The Copper Kettle Tea Bar and they have a shop in Foley, AL.
I might have to make a trip out there to see the shop/cafe. It looks adorable and the food looks delicious :)
I would love to see the fair better organized with all the living history tables, etc. in one area, all the vendors in another (you could make an interesting medieval market with all the vendors in one area), and the jousting/falconry area separated from the rest of the fair with more seating. And the drama plays need to be throughout the day. We weren't able to attend because they were at 3:30 and we had to drive make to Mobile.
All in all, I'm not sure if we will attend the medieval fair next year.....it just depends. For its second year of existence, it isn't too bad. It was worth seeing my mother's face. Total skepticism. I had to remind her that when she was younger she played Dungeons and Dragons so a live medieval reenactment fair wasn't that far of a stretch. LOL
Until next time ^_____^
My DIL would have loved to visit this event.
ReplyDeleteIt was fun. Apparently there are bigger events like this across the country.
Delete